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Ascending Descent
Another day....another dollar. At least, that's how the saying goes. Josephine and Phitsamai continued their patrol of the western border, carefully searching for any wannabe traders. A group of them was captured the previous day, the slaves set free before starting a resettling process in Seikyō. It was a good end to what had been a horrible story; nevertheless, both patrollers knew the Empress's patience wore thin. While her mother had focused on building her nation and people, the new sovereign turned to conquest; spreading the empire's wings and influence. This continent needed a new juggernaut after all; at the very least, someone to counterweight Pergrande's reach. "How long until she invades Minstrel?" Josephine asked, slowing down their pace a bit as they closed in on a patrol headed the opposite way. Each pair nodded at the other before continuing on their respective paths. "Pretty soon; honestly, I'm surprised she hasn't done so already. I mean...Minstrel may be big but their central admin is pretty weak. We could steam roll most of the country easily. Especially with them hating magic and tossing away their own citizens for cash; they've made themselves vulnerable," Sama smirked. "Speaking of which, why do they even participate in such a trade? Sure they hate magic, but those people are their own neighbors, their friends and even family members. Why do such a thing?" her partner continued. "Dunno; humans are nasty, petty creatures with super survival instincts. Those survival instincts will probably be the death of their species someday though," Samai responded, shrugging, "they make demons look saintly sometimes with some of the stunts they pull. Oh we-" she stopped suddenly, picking up a new presence. A murderous grin not dissimilar from her creator peeked through. Josephine noticed Samai's sudden silence, as well as the young woman's diabolical smile. At first, she was confused; that is...until she recognized the source of Phitsamai's intrigue. They all knew what felt like; probably knew it from birth, given their primary purpose. She sighed. "So they're showing up again...guess there's only one appropriate response no?" “What kind of appropriate response would be? Grapple with me, the Lord of all Hunters, the Wanderer of the Great Dark? Best me in a vicious struggle, prove yourself you are better than a god with eons of experience across every battle. Accomplish the impossible, beating the unbeatable?” A cheeky, vibrant voice resounded near Josephine and Samai: a question with seemingly no source, as no one could be seen but the two. Seeing that there was no purpose, Aldaron appeared right in front of the girls, clad in an aura of dusk. “Must admit, young ladies, that you have got quite the gall, to even think that you can measure up one of the mightiest beings Ahtae has to offer. My father and my little sister Vren would applaud you for the audacity; I am applauding you for being able to sense my presence to begin with”. The god of Hunt stared at the two demoness, peeling at what laid behind the pretty surface of her young guests. A superficial glance would misjudge them, placing them among the masses of young, excitable soldiers, if a bit too attractive and well worn than the wrenches one usually associate with such profession. But the flavor, the stench of dark energy pulsating through their bodies would dissipate every about them belonging to an inhuman realm. But what realm… that was the gig. The fragrance they bore belonged to the Void, unmistakably so, but without perfectly overlapping with the typical auras of its dwellers. Aldaron senses were superb even among gods, his smell would detect the most subtle, infinitely difference between individual and individual. Though no odor was quite like another, Aldaron has understood patterns of flavors which associated beings of the same species. Innumerable kinds of demons and yokai he had met in the void, all bearing the unique trace of their mother dimension while keeping the specifics of their kind. Josephine and Samai almost smelled like natural born demons, but never quite. Which only meant one thing: they were created by a Voidsent, molded and infused with such powers like clay sculptures. Aldaron’s father was right: the empress of Shi’nefer meant nasty business. “Well, gentle damsels, your… creator has surely bestowed a lovely semblance on you. One that belies considerable inner strength. But would it.. be enough?” Aldaron stared back to the two pseudo-demoness; a glimmer of excitement beamed in his pearly eyes. The son of the sun and moon too was wearing a veil to mask his true might: that of tall man in his prime, radiant with vigor and youthfulness, with bared torso chiseled and spry as the statue of a Greek god. His eyes and luscious, silky hair gleamed of the purest silver, while his skin brimmed with the purple of kings and emperors. Yeah, when he wanted he could really be a show off. “I know that you are only small fries with Seikyo's organization, so try to reason with you won’t do much. And I can sense a fighting spirit burning within you. But as the gentleman I am, I feel compelled to give you a chance to turn on your back and let me go and talk with your Empress. Or someone, which won’t be me, will go up to the wooden hill of Bedfordshire for a long time”. "Are all gods this haughty??? No wonder ma hates them," Samai mused aloud, her knuckles cracking as her energy surged over the landscape. Small-fry or not, she was itching for a fight. Josephine's own curse power covered her like a thin layer, before stretching into a glowing aura. "Probably," she started, before turning her attention to the deity, "don't underestimate us little god." A long, almost crescent moon like blade formed in her right hand, the woman's focus centered on the god as Samai punched her fists together. "I fail to see why you of all people should be talking with our Empress; yours is the last face she has any interest in seeing. Shall we?" Samai grinned. "Damn straight. Let's wreck this bitch. I've had enough of these fuckers showing up at our doorstep." With that, she charged, energy flowing through her hands and gloves as she unleashed a salvo of preliminary punches. Samai’s flurry of punches were met with a defiant grin and lighting quick feet on the hunter god’s part. Aldaron danced around the demoness, avoiding each of her blows with contemptuous ease, sometimes giving off the illusion that one of her fists would connect before ducking out at the last breath of air. “''Bravo'', bravo”. He would jest. “Good footwork and sharp fists. But your moves are too predictable, and I won’t be waiting for nastier surprises to come”. Aldaron waited for the most minimal rise of her assault, the slightest excess in her motion, spurred by the rising frustration in hitting a slippery opponent. Aldaron stopped moving to avoid her thrust, letting it strike past his pretty face. Literally: Samai cursed infused attack met a chest made of mist, and dove through the air without inflicting a scratch on the god. Seizing the surprise, Aldaron transformed his entire body, sliding past the young demoness and getting her from behind. From that position, he pressed the handle of his massive, double beamed bow against her neck, in a move that had usually the purpose to strangle, but that would be quite the peach for a throwing move. Turning himself on his back, he lifted both his bow and Samai above his neck and brought it down in a downward motion: the force carried by the maneuver hurled Samai against her companion, casting her off like a of slab of rock thrown by a trebuchet. Giving his opponents no time to reprise even as they were colliding into each other, Aldaron flanked the two guards in his mist form and fetched some arrows from his quiver. “Good night, sweet maidens”. He whispered: two bolts shoot silently, ambushing the god’s opponents with the pace of a dream. Of course, Aldaron would not expect any less from the sand darts made his beloved nephew, the god of dreams. Pure hypnotic essence shaped the form of arrow, so powerful it would put the most frenzied berserkers in a sleep so peaceful it would be associated with the popular version of cherubs, at that for many hours. Samai found her back pressed against Josephine's hand, her partner steadying her even as Josephine staggered, eventually crumpling as a bolt struck home. "So that's what gods are capable of...those fuckers are fa-" Samai found a bolt blooming out of her..yet it...it didn't hurt. That was weird....she shook her head as she found it getting fuzzy. She swore, standing as her eyes shifted from their rustic brown hue. Replacing them: the slitted Nakano pupil, as her Curse essence went to war on the sleeping darts. They were magic...her grin darkened. "Look at you and your dangerous self.." Josephine rose unsteadily as well, her own azure gaze bearing the same markings as Samai. Her form shifted, starting to lose its human visage and taking on demon traits. "Why are you even here..." Meanwhile, Jitō continued her writing, clearing out one piece of documentation for another. Flanking her desk were two individuals, both watching the Empress work closely. The first one started chuckling as a glower appeared on the sovereign's face. "Another courtship? How many is that now..50? 100? Even though you're already being courted by one guy. Heh; looks like someone is popular...teehee," she commented, receiving a groan as a reward. "This one's absurd. I mean...I've never heard of this place in my life, and mother made sure I knew my geo-" the door burst open, a young servant bursting through. "Great Tennō....hah...we have a problem..a god has been found breaching the borders..." he exclaimed, breathing hard. "Is anyone on the scene?" came her curt response, several questions rolled into one. "The area is clear, it's on the immediate frontier. All nearby populations are being evacuated. Josephine and Samai are currently squaring off with the deity, but I'm not sure how long they'll last...from the readings, this god appears powerful...really powerful," he responded, handing over the information given to him by those monitoring the situation. The empress accepted them, studying their contents. She then paused, as if listening to something. She nodded, handing them back. "Rhea, Daenerys." Rhea simply nodded as Dae grinned. "Awh....I promised Samai I would buy her dinner if she defeated one. Oh well, looks like it's big sister to the rescue! Any particular way?" "Send the god..onwards and upwards." "Got it. Hoohoo this is going to be good!!" With a snap, the two of them were gone, flying across the sprawling empire to the border fight. Peering at the changing hue of his opponents, as demonic shades marred their fair skin and beautiful eyes, Aldaron rose an eyebrown. Peering at the changing hue of his opponents, as demonic shades marred their fair skin and beautiful eyes, gave the god of hunt a small measure of puzzlement. Resisting the god of dreams darts wasn’t technically, impossible, but a highly unlikely circumstance, for even gods have to be wary of being hit by the arrows of Hypnos without properly steeling their own will, lest not having their consciousness drift away in the realms of blissful sleep. Being a demon alone would not offer you that much in terms of resistance, unless we include the mightiest archi-devil in the equation. A different answer came into Aldaron’s mind: the two creatures differed from normal demons in terms not of quantity of power opposed vis-a-vis the godly bewitchment, but in term of essence. The previous Empress of had grafted onto her creations a quality which naturally antagonizes divine powers, o poison tied to their demonic heritage, yet somewhat transcending it. Impressive, frighteningly so. “Dad, this thing reminds of… Oneiros”. Spoke Aldaron in his own thoughts. “Rarely have been seeing something so alien to us in quite a long time. Sound like the daughter of the Nakano, in her pursuit of power, had cracked some unholy code. Must give her some mad credit, should I meet in her person; after seizing her up and giving her some good needed spanking, of course”. “I wouldn’t be that confident you can do it on your own, Aldaron. When she ascended, I felt a staggering amount of godly energy resonating in the higher spheres of existence. We are talking of a considerably dire situation”. Aldaron’s father, the god of light, answered his son's plea. Though the two were far away, the elder being located somewhere else in the mortal plane, a mental channel connected the father and son’s mind and soul, so that every thought of one would resonate and be manifest to the other. Typical family business and bonding. “You wouldn’t have called me to take them out if it wasn’t some real shit happening, dad. Or that is more likely to happen, to say the least”. In truth, for the being, the emperor of Seikyo was in an ideal position for Ahtae standpoint: a nation of safe people, where its citizens had plenty of food, comfort and freedom. Minus the unfortunate overrun into the rocky nymph population, a necessity wrought by an empire in expansion. But if Aldaron had a dime for every statesman with ungodly magical power at their disposal turning batshit insane out of lust for power and conquest, he would turn richer than Cresus. Oneiros himself had forged an empire that would make Seikyo at its current stage of development look worse than a tribe of caveman. And that was a prime reason of its ruins, biological weapons of mass destruction included. Speaking of the devils, two more of them were joining the fray: massive auras, dwarfing those of the lovebirds in front of him, rushing into the battlefield like stray comets. A smirk etched on the hunter god’s, for he always relished the thought of his preys being right on his heels, feeling their breath reeking on his neck and their steps clashing in his hears. Danger was the soul of any good hunt. However, it didn’t mean he could just goof around. “Well, dad, are you in a right position? Depending on how much south things are going, go after the Empress from your spot. Don’t overdo it though: I want to make this as fun as I can. Step in only if you sees I can’t handle it on my own”. “Don’t worry, Aldaron. I won’t spoil your fun unless I deem it necessary.” Ah Kin smiled. He knew his boy, as rambunctious as he was, had a thoughtful approach to fight. He won’t act too rash, nor let his desire for a struggle sway for his mission. Aldaron was there to prove the might of Ahtae to Seikyo and dissuade them for further offense to neighborhood countries, and to use just the right amount of force to achieve that, not an ounce more or one less. Of course, Aldaron had understood that it would have been unwise, and rather rude to booth to just let the reinforcement come without proper greetings. First thing first, he raised his bow way above his and drew a golden bolt from his quicker. One after another, faster than eye could follow; darts sprung upwards like a fountain. He imprinted onto his blows the smell he could fell from the two incoming warriors, so that they would follow their trace and give them their paralyzing bite till the end of the world. About the two smaller fries, he grinned at them, cocky and confidants, and disappeared in a ball of mist. A sphere which quickly expanded onto the battlefield, shrouding Samai and Josephine in a thick blanket of darkness. The golden clout of Aladaron’s bolts was the almost the closest thing visible in the purple haze: the god of hunt shoot them in an uncountable amount, a hail of projectile coming with each swing of his bow from every conceivable angle. He turned the battlefield in a pincushion, covering every palm of the border land with golden shaft that quickly poured into nothing, and hoped he would riddle Josephine and Samai too. The two fighters moved back to back as darkness engulfed the location, the weight of each other's shoulder blades serving as a comfort. It was common knowledge to predict some sort of attack was in the near future, the question was from which direction...if not all of them. "And they complain about us as scourges, but no one sees a problem with a god using darkness and shadows eh? Talk about double standards," Samai grumbled. The sound of the first shaft hitting the grounds silenced her, however. Curse power radiated around the two of them before expanding outwards, giving a glimpse of a hailstorm of arrows blotting out the sky. And every direction for that matter. To parry such an unquantifiable number would be impossible. Thus, there was only the option: to repulse. Linking together, the two combined their curse power and particles into one entity, generating an invisible shield around them. "Formation: Hitei!!" With this exclamation, it locked into place, before being besieged by the incessant arrows. The two gritted their teeth, pouring more and more of their curse power into the construct as they felt it already wane. Too many arrows....and too fast. Sitting ducks was a word that came to mind as a couple started poking through. "Incoming!!!" Dae's proclamation was part coolly stated fact, part excitement. She banked a sharp turn only to see them follow her. "Looks like we have a homing special too! This should be good." The demoness would stop suddenly, allowing the arrows to almost reach her...before they disintegrated in harmless air. Then she took off like a comet once more, a purple streak across the sky as she sighted the location of the battle. "Teehee, you dealt with your welcoming party yet Rhee?" Dae asked her partner, only to hear the latter burp as Rhea pulled up alongside her. "You actually ate the arrows...I don't know if you are an adrenaline junkie or reckless...still, free meals are nice. I don't want to hear your ass complaining about a tummy ache later though." They would cover the remaining distance with all haste as they felt the competing magic and curse signals crescendo before the latter started dwindling. The presence of the new combatants would be properly announced with a resounding BOOM, shaking the area. As soon as Daenerys landed, her curse went to work, directed by her imagination as it wiped away the shadow darkness and the incoming arrows, blanketing the area. Her efforts would reveal the other duo, battered, bleeding but very much alive. She could see the bloodlust in Samai's eyes in particular. Dae grinned. "Good job you two, head back to base Ven will fix you up; cause you found me a god, I'll still treat you to dinner Sai," she said, waving away Josephine's and Samai's vehement protests as they continued dripping blood onto the ground, stepping forward ever so slowly before stiffening, partial paralyzation taking effect. Meanwhile, Rhea studied the opposing figure, as if memorizing something. As Dae and Rhea stared at Aldaron, the Huntsman stared back and them. Grasping with his supernatural sight the depths of their strength. Admiring the ease, they have dispatched their offense, as limited in its scope it was, and assessing their temper and skill. Clad in black gears, which counterpointed to an extremely pale complexion, Daenerys bore a mischievous kind of charm: she was fit and pretty, with a youthful edge, and the golden eyes of a hawk peering for her prey. She was smiling at the god, no doubt, savoring the moment when two would clash. The strength she was leaking was impressive, no doubt many had fallen before her cheeky grin and obsidian blade. But many years, too many, separated the Huntsman from this runt. Aladaron replicated the smirk with an equally confident one… which turn into stupor as soon as his eyes fell on her companion. What stood before him was the very epitome of statuesque, power and beauty perfectly blended onto other in a figure many goddesses would and should envy. She was a drop-dead gorgeous woman from every point of view, down to the details: from her luscious mane of ivory frothing on her back, to the piercing red hue of her eyes, to her beauty mark below her right eye, adding a touch of class to a soft and unblemished visage. Her frame was absolutely towering: somewhat past two meters, from a quick estimate, and biceps and abs one could pulverize stones on. Yet that figure sculpted with muscle welcomed within himself the most soft, ample, plentiful womanly curves- Heavens, melons would hardly come that plentiful- and as skin as silky as labored alabaster. That was the woman of Aladaron’s dreams: fierce as a lioness and overwhelming as a killer whale. Savage and dignified in one package, that would saunter through battlefields and ballets with the same panache, and equally towering above the crowds of the more feebly looking men and women. She may not bear the face that would launch tens of thousands ships full heroes to burn the topless towers of Ilium, but only because most heroes have boring and way too conventional tastes about true godly beauty. To paraphrase his thoughts and feelings in a less Faustian jargon: Helen of Troy didn’t hold a damn candle to her. The Hunt god didn’t just flush: it was more correct that his face turned in chimney spouting vapor. Months and butterflies swarmed inside her stomach, his eyes assumed the tender shape and rosy shade of lovers. Aladaron could feel beating in and out his ribcage, his head spinning around and rocketing sky high; all predicaments that, being a shapeshifter god, must be taken literally. He was trying to make a statement, reacquire some level of composure toward two, to reclaim a bit of his warrior dignity: but what dignity meant in front of a true goddess? “Heavens, what gift have you brought before my humble and unworthy eyes!” He said, bowing down a foot before Rhea. “An almighty image of beauty as fallen before me, an amazon with pearly skin, silky hair and eyes made out of the most precious rubies…” “Oh no…” Watching from afar, Ah Kin rolled his nigh-omniscient eyes. Could he blame his son for falling in love with such towering pile of fitness? He dared not: the god of Sun remembered his own reaction the first time he saw Atae with her own training gear drenched in sweat. It seemed that a preference for strong, bodacious women was a thing of her family. Yet waxing compliments in the middle of a tense confrontation was hardly helpful either for fighting or flirting. “Aldaron: I know you are finding Rhea stupendously sexy, but reign yourself just a bit. You can flirt all the time you want after we manage to dissuade the royal family…” “Your muscles are diamonds shining in the roughs, your abs are like heavenly peaks shimmering in the peach light of dawn…” “Son, please…” “Your chest is made of stars, two beautiful, bountiful globes, bringers of a life and warmth. A binary solar system…” “Son, YOU ARE GOING TOO FAR!” Too enraptured by the mesmerizing vision of Rhea, Aldaron cared not of what his father was saying. He loved her, breathed her, had her reigning in his thoughts and mind. He summoned from smoke a crystal as big as fist, a spike stone shimmering of blue and amethyst. A artifact that valued more than three kingdoms put togethetr,a dn that Aladaron had recovered from the belly of a colossal beast who is used at having asteroids for breakfasts. “So, my brave trigress, my daunting drake, my godly, sturdy rhino, would you like to marry me!” Cue a godly, embarrassed facepalm from Ah Kin. Daenerys simply stared at this sudden change in the god, originally armed with a cheeky statement. Yet, as the affair played out, she simply couldn't contain it any longer. "BWAHAHAHA." The demoness roared with laughter as Aldaron bowed down in reverence. "Look at this! The 'almighty' god who threw his weight around, felled by the sight of one lovely maiden. Seems you got an admirer Rhee," she chortled while clapping her companion on the back, "Try not to be too rough with him godly, sturdy rhino, he's a gentle soul at heart." "........." Rhea's expression remained blank as this transpired, failing to anticipate this turn of events. "Um....who are you again?" she asked finally as the blushing god proposed marriage of all things. How many seconds had they known each other? Not nearly enough to accept such an outlandish proposal. "No, no I would not. Nor do I appreciate you harming my sisters. So, I will ask you once, and only once, to leave this place. I don't know who sent you or if you sent yourself, but it's unacceptable." Meanwhile, Rhea mumbled under her breath, "who calls a love interest a godly sturdy rhino anyways? Sounds fucking ignorant." Her tone displayed a mild annoyance, as the overdone sea of compliments (if some could be called that), was processed. Dae cooed. "Awh...don't be so mean Rhee, he's just displaying his cheesy affection. See how rosy his cheeks are? I've never seen a god blush so hard. I think he wants you to sit on his face. Try not to fart though, it could be seen as rude. Unless you wanna be all dominatrix with him; I doubt he'd mind." Rhea sighed, "Stop instigating Dae." With each word the maiden was uttering, a dagger of burning glass plunged deep into Aldaron's lovestruck heart. His round, puppylike eyes turned watery as the rose tinged peeled away in broken fragments, leaving off a grey, empty stare. "S-son, I am sorry..." The voice of the hunter god's father echoed in his mind to reassure him with a paternal tone. Granted, even a fool could not deny that Aldaron's declaration of love was among the corniest, most overblown, most inappropriate, and most ineffective that he had ever witnessed in his eons-long life, with any chance of success being barely less thin than a proton. But there was genuine love behind each of Aldaron's words, and Ah Kin's son pain was his own. "I mean, do not take this "no" as the definitive abortion of your dreams of love. Maybe you need to make your romantic avances at a reasonably slower pace, calibrate your praises to different terms of comparison, take more time to know each other better, and of course, wait for a much more appropriate predicament..." "I-I am fine, dad. Really". Aldaron flatly stated with no joy. "We've got a lofty goal to achieve, and time is scant to mourn. If I have to be wholly honest with you, dad, such refusal is driving my resolve even more". "Such feeling is commendable, son, but I am still your father, and I wish not you to bottle up your emotions and denying yourself a good..." "I. AM. FINE. Really! It's going to take me less than a century of crying and drinking vodka with my polar bear friends to recover, I promise!" Whipping back his head to the two maidens, Aldaron regained focused, his gaze turning as grim and determined as it suited his mission. "Dear ladies, as an elder brother myself, I apologize for being forced to hurt your sisters. Unfortunately, I am here to fulfill a holy purpose. You know, the kind of stuff which is of extreme importance in keeping the delicate balance between the natural and supernatural world..." Aldaron coughed a bit and had his eyes turning in the brightest, most potent glimmer of silver imaginable, while his power swelled over in purples hues as mighty as raging tsunamis, drenching the landscape. Though only a fraction of his godly stature was in display, Aldaron looked and felt like a true god. His voice reverberated powerfully as such, with the classic echoes and a bit of ominous Latin-sounding effect to help him carry his commands in full force. "GREETINGS MORTALS. I AM ALDARON, MASTER OF HUNTS, SCIONS AMONG THE ATHAE. WE BEINGS OF THE HIGHER SPHERES HAVE WITNESS THE WORK OF YOUR EMPIRE, AND WE ARE MOST DISPLEASED WITH YOUR WARMONGERING CONDUCT AND USE OF FORBIDDEN MAGIC. THOUGH YOUR INTENTION TO MEND THE ILL OF THIS LAND ARE COMMENDABLE, SUCH BLOODY CAMPAIGN MUST NOT CONTINUE, LEST NOT YOUR NOBLE INTENTION DEGENERATE INTO BLASPHEMOUS, DICTATORIAL INTENT!" The tacky sound and color effects stopped abruptly, leaving behind the appearance of a relatively normal, well-built mean. "That's the will of the gods, anyway. They sent me to deliver this message to the one in charge of Seikyo. We wanted to set things peacefully, but those two lasses decided to attack me first. So, if you let me reach the current Empress unperturbed, nobody else will get hurt. No mess, no hurt: that's my word". Dae coughed, half-laugh and half-huff. Really? First the cheesy love spread, now posterizing? This dude was too much. Then talking down to them? Oh no; this fool was working his way up her naughty list. "Hey, hey. You right there. First of all, cut the mortal crap. I haven't aged a day in my life and I don't plan on starting now. Second, don't you ever...EVER talk down to us. You could say it's the will of Yeshua or Buddha and I still wouldn't give one flying shit," was her response. She was ready to go on, but Rhea put a hand up in front of her. "Let me put this in order of importance: you want to meet the Empress. You want the forbidden magic to stop. And you and your brethren are "most displeased" with our "warmongering conduct". Answer me this; where were you and your kind when Acnologia was terrorizing the world? Where were you when robust slave routes crisscrossed this continent? Where were you, when magic-kind were hunted, raped, and murdered simply for being?" Rhea asked, her arms crossed. "I'm disappointed that you came all the way here, just to lecture us. The Empress nor her people have time for such high-handed attitudes." Aldaron's eyes rolled. Predictable as the farting of demons from the fifth hell after an overdose of chill peppers, here came a staple of nearly all the rants of heathens: theodicy. Why was he involved in bullshit like this? Most of his followers were hunters of many kinds: men and women of very few words, rugged, quiet, determined. They didn't curse him, and if they did, they were all with a concise "fuck you," or "bullshit". And, as far as his enemies went, he could tell that most exciting and reflective pieces of conversation never went beyond an exchange of grunts, screams, and roars. A god of philosophy he was not: Aldaron had always preferred the arrow to diplomacy, proving that while a pen might be mightier than a sword, his shafts could turn you into a shish kebab before you had the chance to draw out both of them. Father was in charge of the talking: he probably had reached the Empress already and was all in with the lecturing and the counterarguments. "Look, lovely ladies, I am not the best when it comes to verbal throw-downs. Philosophy and rhetoric aren't my cup of tea by a longshot. The stuff about mortals was a sample speech we usually perform when it comes to earthly kingdoms and whatnot". He conceded, gruffing slightly. "So, let's rewind my introduction from before the performance and argue as briefly as possible." "Well, the problem lands as squarely as the tiny one said: you are NOT mortals. Yet you work under the directives of a newly ascended goddess and her dragon daughter to bring as many people as you can under your banner. And if the mortals in question oppose you, you destroy and subjugate them without mercy. From their perspective, you are the scary ones, the otherworldly, immortal, tyrannical threat". "And look, I can understand you are doing this with the best intentions of the world: abolish slavery, deliver protection, foster prosperity in a broken world. I hate tyrants, racists, and polluters as much as the next guy. Well, I fuckin despise polluters much more than the next guy, cause for me they should be impaled and left hanging from a tree by their rectum". Aldaron growled, voicing his disdain for the constant despoiling of nature humankind performs without abandon or consideration. "The problem is more with your methods than anything. And here comes the answer to your question, raven-haired one: us immortals can't be trusted going all in and meddle with mortals affairs constantly, let alone rule over them. Sooner or later, we get possessive, nagging, high-handed. We believe that just cause we've got so much greater power and experience than mortals, it makes us perfect, and thus lesser beings must bend to our whims. So we either pamper our followers or start to abuse them as they were our property. But that makes no better than the tyrant we depose or the threat from which we claim we are protecting our followers. Centuries can pass before the first signs of abuse start to come in, but things always end in the same way: mortals who once prayed us to come and deliver them from evil get screwed up for having their wish granted. Badly". Aldaron gave a heavy, solemn breath. Throughout his lecture to the two girls, he had completely abandoned any pretense of high-ground, speaking ina soft-spoken yet matter-of-fact tone, never trying to browbeat his interlocutor. For all his experience with his divine brethren- well, to be more correct, because of that- Aldaron had little good to say about the vast majority and none when it those who wanted to build empires on the mortal planes. "We gods aren't that much of an awesome deal, power aside. I would even say our massive strength is the very reason why most of us are pompous, colossal cunts, and our immortality makes us selfish crybabies incapable of ever watching beyond our nose. I know you are young and idealist, but you are very, very powerful, and will live forever if not destroyed: how can anybody assure you won't turn into slavers far worse than those you are butchering?" Dae was about to put it in a language Aldaron could understand, but again, she found a hand of Rhea blocking. She snorted. "Fine, you deal with him. He'd let you sit on his face if you asked anyway." She took a seat, hawk-eyes trained on the hunting god as if daring him to try something. "The short answer is, we don't. But the same can be said about you gods can't it? You admitted how easily you become pompous, spoiled, immortal brats who think everything is theirs. Yet somehow this world is still standing; well, this iteration of it anyway. Why? Because just like anything else, there are ways to keep you in check. Other gods, god slayers, the beings above you called primordials. A web of alliances and non-aggression pacts; what keeps us humble is that I know monsters far beyond you and your parents paygrades. You need other people to keep yourself honest; and you do the same for them. We have that system here. If we wanted to take over the continent, it would be done already. But there's no point in doing that when only misery would trail in your wake," Rhea responded. "Long story short, we hold each other accountable, whether we like it or not."